The Hollywood Matador (1942)

The Hollywood Matador Review

The Hollywood Matador is a 1942 animated short film from the Woody Woodpecker series. It is a very problematic flick.

In this short, Woody fights a bull inside the arena with the audience cheering for him at the stadium. Yes, this is your standard bullfighting cartoon and it failed to differentiate itself from many others that did the same setting and similar gags. Woody here is even more similar to Bugs, but much more brutal.

My main issue with this short is that ending that featured animal cruelty. It happened off-screen, but still the scene of Woody making bull burgers for everyone was too disturbing for me and too similar to the ending of the previous short. There are some fine gags in the middle section and the short is very well animated and made overall, but it needed to have been funnier.

The Hollywood Matador is well animated and featuring a couple of solid gags. Woody is quite memorable too. But the familiar premise and overly cruel ending were its biggest flaws.

My Rating – 4.2